Although his places seem timeless, the modern world creeps in to his Umbrian landscapes. In Dreaming in Umbria, the figure holds a cigarette; in Cellular as the title indicates, the figure holds a cell phone. Bailey notes, “I believe that an artist should be of his time. This doesn’t mean that his time must be the subject of his work.”

Bailey was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  He attended the University of Kansas, School of Fine Arts.  After serving in the United States Army during the Korean War, he studied under Josef Albers at Yale where he received both his B.F.A. and M.F.A degrees.  He has been exhibiting in New York since the late 1960’s. William Bailey’s work can be seen in a host of public and private collections, most notably the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.  Bailey is the subject of two monographs, one by Mark Strand and the other by John Hollander and Guiliano Briganti. He lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut and Umbria, Italy.

Illustrated catalogue available.